Concert preview: Natalie Cole is a breed of superstar not made anymore

Natalie Cole is a goddess of the game representing an era of pop music that is all but alien to today’s generation. Her music glides and swings, more dependent on unflappable grace than a throbbing rhythm section or saccharine hooks. But hooks and rhythm are there too, brimming with vitality the way elevator music usually doesn’t. She’s a breed of superstar they don’t make anymore.

That’s not necessarily a tragedy; as Don Draper put it, “Change isn’t good or bad. It just is.” But it makes Cole’s “Unforgettable Evening” this Thursday at the Wex something to soak up before it slips away for good.

Columbus-based cross-cultural community choir The Harmony Project opens Thursday’s show, which doubles as a benefit for the Wexner Center for the Arts and the Wexner Medical Center’s Stress, Trauma and Resilience (STAR) program.